ID:117255
 
Keywords: clunkyships, poplava
So it has been well over a year since my last blog post, and while I occasionally posted on the forums, I have not been too active within this community. My reasoning: preparation for my final year of College. I have also spent time working on an album with my brother and writing short stories.

A few weeks ago a game concept popped into my head and I decided to use it to refresh my memory of DM. I also wanted to work on a project for the Poplava Challenge, so this was perfect timing. The idea I had was inspired with my long-term dream of creating a game related to the unknowns of space. Basically, you are thrown onto a planet, possibly with three of your friends, and you are given materials to build a ship, maintain it, and attempt to maneuver it throughout space.

I loved the idea as it was very simple and apparently, building games are addictive. For the first time in months I opened Dream Maker, created a new environment, and started to program. I actually enjoyed it for the first time in years. It is just like being God, I can create anything I wish, and I liked it. Similar to my last two projects, I planned on incorporating my pixel movement engine. Unfortunately, or perhaps luckily as my engine is clunky, I reformatted my laptop months before and all of my projects were on a flash drive over one-hundred and fifty miles away. So I opted with using the standard BYOND grid.

But the creation of this new project, named clunky ships, was not a smooth ride. Just days after starting there was a storm that knocked our power out for nearly a week. Not too long after, our basement flooded and I was stuck with using the WetVac, Pine-sol, and a blade to cut the wet rug. But these distractions did not discourage me, but they did disrupt the flow of the progress and I was not able to finish my project in time for Poplava's deadline.

Nonetheless, I still had motivation and the day after I returned back to my College townhouse, today, I spent hours programming in more features. Unlike my previous projects, disturbances actually give me even more motivation to continue working on this project. In fact, I am happy that I was not able to complete my project in time for the Poplava Challenge. It just gives me more time to produce a more professionally appealing project that could potentially garner me a few bucks. With that said, I present to you a short demonstration of clunky ships.


(I suggest using the highest quality setting along with using full screen)


There is no actual goal in this game; you are only there to experiment and to have fun. My plan is to come up with more building objects, whenever they pop into my head. I also do not plan on releasing the game until it is absolutely complete, although, I do want to gather a few to help me test prior to the release. This means that the finish product will have better graphics and interface, along with having music made by yours truly. The idea is that I will go back into hiding while working on this as I tend to get distracted by this community, and I also find daily/frequent bloggings about little-to-no progress ineffective. I have a schedule designed to tell me what to work on each day, when I finish the day's work, I do not move onto the next day. This prevents me from being stressed out, so do not expect more progress related news until I have something substantial to show. I want to surprise you all with the development of this project each blog post.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the preview of the project that brought me back to the beautiful DM language!
Wow! It looks awesome!
I can't wait to see more.
I wanna see the ship move.
That'd make this really amazing.

I guess you won't be posting about it for a while, though.
That's fine. As long as you're doing a good job, the method doesn't matter! (I think...)

Also, thanks again!
Ceecee is mein.
Yut Put wrote:
I absolutely love the idea, and I'm excited to see what might come out of it. Have space lasers been considered >=)

Adding weaponry has been considered. Of course, with such an addition I'd either have to create AI to battle or I guess players could battle each other. The idea was to have a server that consist of a maximum of 4 players. Therefore, the host's select friends could help him or her build a ship. But I could create a Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag mode that would allow more players and define a goal.


Complex Robot wrote:
I wanna see the ship move.

I got a little happy over fixing an annoying and longstanding bug, thus I jumped into posting. After second thought, I wish I would have waited a day so I could show ship movement too. If I can remember, I'll post a video of it in action in the comments today or tomorrow.


Kai wrote:
Ceecee is mein.

Kai is mein!
Calus CoRPS wrote:
If I can remember, I'll post a video of it in action in the comments today or tomorrow.

Sweet! This is gonna be a fun game.
yea +1
Awesome, good to see you're still developing!

I love space games! :D
Yut Put wrote:
Also, what can we do in regards to building on the planet's surface?

My original idea for this project consisted of players building an outpost that provides oxygen and such. The goal was to dig into the planet to find material, bring it back up to be processed, and then use that output to build a space shuttle. Thus allowing you to explore other plants. I am not sure if I am still sticking with this idea. At the moment, the goal is to perfect the ship building system and then create more objects to build with. I believe that if I were to offer a nice amount of ship objects, along with allowing users to create their own objects through an in-game scripting language, that it would keep peoples' attention for quite some time.


DarkCampainger wrote:
Awesome, good to see you're still developing!

Hehe, I love programming too much to ever fully quit. DM is the only language that I can quickly create a game with, and since I do not plan on learning another language, I'll probably stick with it for a long time!

What have you been up to?

I love space games! :D

Same here! I'm guessing my love for the genre has given me the most motivation I have had since joining BYOND.
Calus CoRPS wrote:
DarkCampainger wrote:
Awesome, good to see you're still developing!

Hehe, I love programming too much to ever fully quit. DM is the only language that I can quickly create a game with, and since I do not plan on learning another language, I'll probably stick with it for a long time!

What have you been up to?

I love space games! :D

Same here! I'm guessing my love for the genre has given me the most motivation I have had since joining BYOND.

Well, I spent my summer break working at an unpaid IT internship. Today was actually my last day, but I'm hoping they'll offer me a part-time job.

Beyond that, I've been working on a little sound emitter library. I seem to be doing a lot "environment" libraries, lately.

Anyway, if you need testers at some point... :D
DarkCampainger wrote:
Well, I spent my summer break working at an unpaid IT internship. Today was actually my last day, but I'm hoping they'll offer me a part-time job.

That sounds awesome, I hope you get an offer! I will be doing my internship this spring with either a Juvenile Court or with Adult Probation. Then I am out into the real world, unless I go into Law School.

Beyond that, I've been working on a little sound emitter library. I seem to be doing a lot "environment" libraries, lately.

Neat. I'll be looking forward to a release.

Anyway, if you need testers at some point... :D

I'll will definitely contact you when I enter the testing phase!
As promised, here is a short video of my ship moving. Just like in real life, when I let go of the thrusters, the ship continues to move at the same speed. The only way to stop the ship is to provide the same amount of thrust the opposite direction. Due to testing reasons, the speed slowly increases.

Yut Put wrote:
Does the planet have gravity?

Nope. But adding gravity and a skyline is on the "to-do before the release" list. Thus meaning if you let go of the thrust, you'll crash.

[edit]
I've been contemplating how I would want gravity to work, though. Would I want it to occur all around the planet or only near the top of the surface where one can land? If I go with the former route, then I should allow one to land on any four sides of the planet. Therefore, I would use client.dir to rotate the players screen.